Sports

St. John’s shocks Irish, falls in overtime

Everyone on the St. John’s women’s soccer team knew that their Big East semifinal matchup against Notre Dame was going to be an uphill battle.

When the Fighting Irish scored first, it wasn’t a surprise. But when senior Nicole Doran equalized off a header from fellow senior Courtney Lane’s corner kick, it stunned top-seeded Notre Dame.

“It took us a while to get used to Notre Dame, as the game went on we got better,” St. John’s coach Ian Stone said. “We scored a big goal, which is the first goal we’ve ever scored against them.”

The Red Storm fought hard after the goal and pushed the game into overtime, but finally succumbed to the Fighting Irish, falling 2-1 in the 98th minute of play Friday night at the University of Connecticut.

“Notre Dame is a really good team,” Doran said. “We got off to a slow start, but we really picked it up in the second half.”

Doran and the defensive unit of seniors Lane, Tara Mendoza, Vaila Barsley and sophomore goalkeeper Kristin Russell had their hands full with the dominant Fighting Irish offense, facing 26 shots during the match. The Red Storm had a difficult time getting the ball over into their offensive third.

Russell continued to make a name for herself on the national level by finishing the game with seven saves.

“Were a tight unit and instead of focusing on the talent of the other team we were focused on ourselves and what we need to do to win,” Doran said.

While the Red Storm contained Notre Dame’s offense, they had a tremendous amount of trouble trying to find their offensive presence. They were out shot by Notre Dame, 26-5.

“They have a great caliber of players that were very talented on the offensive end,” Lane said.

Sophomore Jen Leaverton had two shots while C.J. Ludemann and Kaitlin Haas each added a shot.

With the loss, the Red Storm fall to 14-6-1 while Notre Dame improves to 16-3-1. The Red Storm also will have to wait until Monday’s selection show to find out if their season will be continuing.

“This game showed that we could play with anybody,” Stone said, “and I hope the NCAA will let us have the opportunity to that.”